When the Game Stands Still
by DaughterofTheHuntress
Summary: Percy Jackson is new at Goode High his junior year, having been recruited for football, and grows stressed, especially since he can't decide if he hates Annabeth Chase or if he likes her. And Annabeth is struggling with an argument with her stepsister and the fact that her perfect record may be in peril when a reckless black haired guy with sea green eyes envades her turf.
1. I Eat Cookies in a Mansion

**-Percy-**

I vaguely remember my reaction to the life-changing news. All it deemed to me now was a huge blur of emotions. The first clear thing I remember about it is the blood pounding in my ears as my mom, Sally Jackson, opened the envelope that contained the contents of my future.

She beamed. Her smile stretched so far across her face that I immediately knew that the letter that she held in her hands contained good, no — _fantastic_ news.

I would start my junior year at Goode High, home of the mighty... Pegasus-es? Pegasi? Whatever, I didn't care about the correct plural of Pegasus, what I really couldn't wrap my head around was that I would attend, and _play_ for the school with one of the most athletically skilled football teams in the entire northeast region.

No pressure or anything.

"Percy! Are you packed yet?" I heard my stepfather, Paul, calling from the living room, and I could hear that he opened the door and was quickly growing impatient with me. We had lived in the same apartment together for the last few years as my mom struggled to find a new job after the candy shop that she had used to work for ran out of business, and Paul had kept his same teaching job at the high school for a decade. But now, all the opportunities in the world just seemed to open for me and my family. Or, my family and I... I don't really care how that grammatically works either if I'm being honest.

Anyways, my mom had gotten a job at a museum as a tour guide, spouting out information about the Greek gods, and yada yada... Boring stuff like that for the most part, and she almost always made me want to snooze when she tried to tell me about her job in detail.

As for Paul, Goode had reached out to him to be one of the new teachers. He'd be teaching juniors like me, instead of the freshmen he taught at my old school. I knew it'd be a welcome change for him, he couldn't stand the immaturity of ninth graders.

But, however excited I remained about starting football there, the idea of moving did leave nervous butterflies in my stomach. I'd lived in Manhattan for my entire life and now I was moving to the suburbs outside of New York for high school. I'd leave everything about my old life behind, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

In Manhattan, I actually didn't have the nicest memories. My first girlfriend, and the only girl I've ever loved, Calypso Atlas, crushed my heart into a million pieces there. She didn't do it intentionally, the Calypso I cared for and loved would never hurt a fly. During freshman year, her father got a job and they moved, and she left me behind. I could still hear her words as she broke it off with me.

"Perce, you know I don't want to leave you, I love you." Tears streamed down her face as she spoke, her voice wavering. "But this job is very important to my dad, he always acts like it's his job to hold up the sky for everyone." She chuckled dryly. Her dad was quite the businessman, and by then he had been asked to take over as the boss of the company. He certainly did act like the fate of the world laid on his shoulders, but he didn't take it kindly. He snapped at people, ordered them around, and often made them do his job for him. He was one of those kinds of guys you wish would never have taken power.

I never told her this though. I knew that even if Calypso didn't completely _love_ her dad, she definitely respected him. I had personally always believed that you loved first, and respected later. If you didn't love someone, why would you want to hang around them when you could be with someone you did love? Like how Calypso did love her sister, Zoë. They were twins, but they were so vastly _different_.

For one, Calypso's hair is one of the first things I grew to love about her. She didn't wake up at dawn to fix it, it didn't _cascade_ perfectly. It flowed down to her waist in messy waves, sometimes pulled to the side in a braid, and often pulled back with a headband. I don't know if someone could describe hair as free-willed, but that's certainly how I thought of it. It shined a caramel-blond, but would appear more golden when I looked at it in the sunlight.

No one would ever catch Zoë Atlas' hair as anything but on point and styled to perfection. Her dark mahogany brown hair could be pin straight, curled in big or small ringlets, done in eccentric braids, or even a combination of the three. Never ever could it be described as "messy." I once pulled a strand of hair from her stylish up do, and she had glowered at me until I would apologize a million times for upsetting her. She had always made me a little nervous, and I always felt like she hated me. She didn't like guys though in general, she preferred to stay in a pack of girls. She always put so much effort into how she looked however, that most people thought it was a front, and she just played hard-to-get. But I knew, had a gut feeling, that Zoë looked like this to feel good about herself only. And while Calypso wore little to no makeup at all, Zoë wore a full face. She never caked it on though, she just did it so professionally that you'd hardly notice she wore any if not for the golden eyeshadow she dawned on a daily basis. It made her eyes stand out more, eyes that she shared with Calypso. They were perhaps the one feature they had in common. Large, almond shaped brown eyes, with little flecks of golden in them. Absolutely beautiful.

Zoë always put her best face forward, thinking it would get her farther in life if she didn't make relationships and form real bonds with people. Everything about Calypso was natural, everything about Zoë was not. But the two shared a bond like no other. If Calypso was feeling down, Zoë always knew before me, and if Zoë was feeling insecure about herself or her appearance, Calypso would leave me with a quick peck on the cheek before checking on her sister.

It made me feel as though I was missing something, not having a sibling of my own. My mom and dad weren't married when they had me. They were twenty, still pretty young, and they'd only been dating for a few months, but my parents truly loved each other. He had been ready to move in, marry, and start a family with my mom, but his job interfered.

He was the captain of a cruise ship and he loved it. He loved the ocean and everything about it. His worst fear though, was flying in an airplane. He avoided it his whole life after getting in one when he was younger, and having a bad experience with it. His brother, Zeus, had never let him get over it, instead using his fear against him and making him terrified of anything to do with flying in the air. Maybe in some ways, I was lucky to be an only child. Besides, my dad was the type of guy who would take the long route, so if he needed to go somewhere, he'd do it by boat. So he died when what he loved the most and what he feared the most collided in the worst possible way.

A smaller plane only meant for one person (I don't know what you call the type of plane, I'm not a fan of flying in them either, they're unreliable as shit) had broken down. The pilot lost control of his supposed badass flying machine that he'd been makes intricate loops in moments before and crashed, causing massive waves to flood the decks of my dad's ship.

My mom and I never saw him again. I had been about three at the time, and I idolized my father. I knew that I looked like him and I wanted to be just like him in all aspects. But I didn't get the chance to really know him because he was taken away from me so suddenly.

For a long time, my mom had been in denial. They hadn't found my dad's body yet, so at the funeral, when people would condolence her for her loss, she would reply, "He's not dead." Like it was the thing she was the most sure of in the world. "Not dead, just lost at sea."

After a few years, my mom finally decided to move on. She started dating a guy named Gabe, who treated mistreated her as well as me, but she got engaged to him anyway. I hadn't realized why she'd want to marry a monster like that, but then I thought about it. My mom had been so lonely. I'd started school and she'd spend her days in between jobs, and since she believed she'd never love anyone like she had loved my dad, she settled for a vile human being to be her partner for the rest of her life.

It took her finally seeing Gabe hit me to break things off with him. She threw pans at him and screamed at the top of her lungs, until one of the neighbors must have called the cops. The police took one look at my mom with a frying pan in her hands, glowering at Gabe venomously, and took a glance at me with a hand shaped mark on my cheek, and dragged Gabe away.

Fortunately, we were the happiest we'd ever been when we knew that we'd never see that shoddy example of a "father figure" ever again. My mom had even thrown the ring he gave her out the window, and it hit him square in the temple.

Basically, my mom was the most amazing person on the entire planet. And she definitely deserved the happiness that would be headed her way soon after.

When I was about twelve, she met a middle school teacher named Paul. I liked him immediately. He was easygoing, kind, generous, and considerate. He treated my mom the way Gabe should have treated her and the way my father treated her. Like she was a queen among women.

For the longest time, I had expected I would have to be forced to wear a ridiculous looking tux so I could be the ring bearer for their wedding, but my mom surprised me with another role. She asked me to give her away at the alter. She was an orphan and an only child, so she didn't have anyone else, but I remember feeling so taken aback and honored at the same time.

I cried at their wedding, they had the most beautiful ceremony I had ever seen and I couldn't stop thinking about how thankful I felt that she had found someone who deserved her finally. I loved Paul, he was my step-father, yet he was the perfect father for me.

I loved my family more than anything and all of these breathtaking moments happened in Manhattan. And now I would be leaving.

I just really wanted my new home to be just as amazing and meaningful.

I finished packing my suitcase and ran out the door, catching Paul off guard as I moved past him. "Glad to see you finished." I winked at him in response and got in the backseat.

Normally, I would've tried to sit shotgun before my mom would force me to move, but I was quickly growing nervous so I was content in staying in the back and out of the spotlight. I put my headphones over and started playing some music. I knew it was rude because my parents probably wanted to talk to me about school arrangements and everything like that, but it was the last thing that I wanted to talk about, so I decided to just tune them out at focus on Imagine Dragons playing in my head.

When we arrived at our new address in the state of Massachusetts, I gawked. Our home was two stories high, but very cosy and not very big. But I loved being out of the stuffy apartment so much that I didn't care. It was as good as a mansion to me.

My room was on the second floor and a decent size and I got my own bathroom, which was a huge plus for me. My parents' room was on the first floor and they had a master bedroom and two separate bathrooms. There was another bedroom, one that I assumed we would use as a guest bedroom, that was connected to my bathroom and I just added that to the list of reasons why I was fortunate as an only child.

My room had bare dark blue walls that I would soon be filling with movie posters and pictures of my old friends and hopefully — my new friends.

When my bed was made and I was happy with how my room looked, I decided to walk outside and observe the neighborhood. Our closest neighbors actually did have a mansion. Four stories, long, white, intricate Ancient Greek pillars, and big windows, with a large wooden door with a heavy looking knocker on it with the face of a lion or something of the sort carved into it. The house stood so grand and beautiful. As did the girl who walked outside of it.

She was tall and dark, like she had Native American relatives. She had long dark brown hair to her chest, and even from where I stood, I could see her eyes, how they never seemed to settle on a specific color. She didn't look like she drew much attention to herself however, despite how wealthy she clearly was. She wore simple, pale blue jeans with rips in them, converse, and a plain orange t-shirt with faded black lettering on it.

"Hi," I called after her after she noticed me sitting on my front lawn under a tree with leaves hanging over, providing shade and making the hot summer day a little cooler.

"Oh," She replied, awkwardly fiddling with the belt loops of her jeans. "Hey."

"I'm your new neighbor," I tried for a smile. "My name's Percy Jackson."

"Piper." She told me. I patted the spot next to me, offering for her to get out of the sun. She seemed to consider it for a while before sitting next to me. When Piper sat next to me, it gave me a chance to study certain details about her face. She had high cheekbones, full pink lips, and her kaleidoscope eyes were large with long curly eyelashes. She was quite the sight to look at.

"Do you go to Goode High?" I asked. She nodded, and I grinned. If all the girls who attended Goode were like this, I'd be ok. And not just because she was beautiful (Well, I little) but also because she was low maintenance and appeared down to earth. Not like the typical private school girl that they portray in movies.

"You gonna be new at my school?" She asked. She had a nice lilt to her voice. It was cheerful and melodic, with a hint of a southern twang.

"Yeah, I got recruited for football." I answered, unsure of how she would take this. I didn't immediately want to be known as the guy who only got in for football, which was true, but I didn't want to be perceived as a bonehead right off the bat, before I even stepped into the school.

To my pleasant surprise, she just grinned. "That's awesome. Congratulations." She seemed genuinely happy for me, but there was an underlying aspect to her tone that I couldn't quite decipher. It seemed as though the idea of football made her really unhappy.

"You like football?" I chose to ask her. She "hmmmm'd" and nodded her head in response. I raised my eyebrow at her inability to form words.

"I like watching... the... players."

"A _player_?"

" _Players_." She glared at me, but I already gathered all I needed to know. She had a crush on a guy who played on the football team. I could tell by how defensive she got so fast, even though her face remained passive, I could tell by how high her voice got. But I decided not to call her out on this, it seemed cruel.

Just as I cleared my throat, about to change the subject, two other girls charged out of the mansion Piper had walked out of, and the one leading didn't look happy.

"PIPER?! Are you with a BOY?" The voice didn't sound protective, just very annoyed and... jealous?

"Ugh, Drew," Piper complained, tilting her head back against the trunk of the tree and groaning in displeasure. I peered over her to look at the girl who had spoken.

Drew was tall like Piper, as well as albeit dark skinned, but that was where the similarities ended. She had flowy black hair to her waist in perfectly done curls, with piercing brown eyes that I could make out even from where I sat, and big red lips. She was stunningly beautiful, but not in a refreshing, down to earth way like Piper. More like your typical "dress to impress" kind of girl. I could tell she wasn't very chill like Piper by the way she glowered at her.

The girl behind Drew didn't glare. She looked at Piper and I with an apologetic look. She was a short, petite girl, and had long golden blond hair to her chest that was done neatly in curls like Drew's, and large ocean blue eyes. Her plump lips were drawn in a scowl at Drew, but I could still tell that she was still really pretty. And that was when I took in the situation in front of me. I was surrounded by three beautiful girls who all looked pissed.

All of a sudden, I felt nervous.

"Drew," the blonde girl snapped. "Leave her alone and stop acting like all she does is flirt like you do, she already likes someone." Piper smirked.

"Thanks Silena—"

"Flirting is not the only thing I do! I'm very well-rounded!" Both of the other girls looked at Drew incredulously. She grinned sheepishly.

"Well, maybe not... but I do know how to bake!" She spouted randomly in response. I raised an eyebrow at her, wondering how she found this information relevant. When she saw my face, she elaborated. "Our family heard that we were getting new neighbors, and when the moving truck drove in, I decided to make some welcome cookies." She glared at Piper before continuing again. "I _was_ going to come and introduce myself, but my dear sister, Piper beat me to it."

"Sorry," Piper deadpanned, rolling her eyes. "I wanted some fresh air."

"It doesn't matter now I suppose," Drew replied, waving her hand in dismissal. "All that matters is that you get the cookies."

"Yeah, I could go for some cookies with my hot new neighbors, why not?" All three of them blushed and I smiled at them warmly.

"Aw, he's charming too," Drew gushed, before snapping out of it and gesturing for the rest of them to follow her into the house.

The inside of the home decoratively outranked the outside. A huge glass chandelier stood in the middle of a foyer, with two princess staircases on each side with marble steps. It looked like it came straight out of one of those glamorous Hollywood movies I used to watch with my mom. My nightmare to sum it up nicely. Those movies weren't exactly guy-centric. Maybe they should be though, I definitely enjoyed staring at the house.

Drew led us all to the kitchen, where a plate of chocolate chip cookies were waiting, still gooey and warm. They didn't shine the brilliant blue that I often required for my food, but I was too entranced by the smell of cookies that I didn't really care (but I did ask to put a little blue icing on it) and I felt much more at home than I had when I'd first arrived.

When I finally had to leave the girls, Piper called from behind me, "Don't stand looking like an idiot at lunch on Monday, you'll sit with _us_!"

First day there and I already had new friends. I could only imagine what the rest of the school year would bring.

. . .

 **My first Percy Jackson story that will be multi-chapter! I'm so excited it's not even funny. Next chapter will be a summary of what Annabeth has been up to until this point in the story. Percabeth probably won't meet until the fourth, fifth, or sixth chapter.**

 **Please tell me what you thought of this first chapter! Was it promising? I like all reviews, so feel free to tell me if you hate it. I can take it. I love constructive criticism.**

 **The chapters will get longer in length as the story progresses, I promise! Also, I'll have a goal to reach for reviews each chapter, because if you reach it, I'll be more excited to update.**

 **Review Goal: 5 reviews**

 **LASTLY — I'm looking for a beta/person who could help with my football terms and knowledge for the future of Percy's career. That would be fantastic.**

 **That's all, please review!**

 **~Molly xoxoxoxoxoxo**


	2. The Complicated Web of Relationships

**-Annabeth-**

I woke up that morning to the sound of fists banging on my door. "ANNABETH! MOM SAYS GET UP!" My little brothers still continued to pound against my door, something they've done since they were small, and they still did it, even now that they were in the sixth grade. Pests they were, Bobby and Matthew, annoying me, Annabeth Chase, since October 22nd, 2004.

"I'm coming," I groaned into my pillow, not even caring that they couldn't understand it. I'm usually a morning person, but in high school, when my nights were filled with my angsty friends texting me, I never got much sleep. The problem with my friends lately had all been boy related. Silena liked Beckendorf, who wouldn't make a move, Drew was having trouble finding someone she liked enough to settle down with, and Piper still freaked out and turned a million shades of red when she thought Jason Grace so much as glanced at her.

Those three sisters certainly kept me up with their rants. They were only half-sisters really, they only shared the same mother. Drew was a senior in school, the oldest, and therefore felt as though she was the boss, which bothered her sisters, but I could see how protective she was over her sisters. She genuinely cared about them, even if she would regard them with her cold-hearted bitchiness most of the time. Silena was a junior, like me, and was overly perky sometimes, but an overall good person with honorable intentions. Piper was the youngest, a sophomore, and all three girls lived with her real dad, Tristan McLean. He was a super famous, former actor, who adopted Drew and Silena as his own daughters to take care of when they were little.

He was well off with money, which Drew and Silena took full advantage of, and Piper didn't as much. This had seemed backwards to me, that the biological daughter was the bashful one of the three about her father's fortune, but if one was familiar with the personalities of the three, they would know that Piper just didn't like attention. She despised it actually. And I knew that when she started school, she wasn't comfortable with living up to her two sisters, so her father sent her to get an education down south, where his best friend and Piper's godfather lived. She'd basically grown up there in Louisiana, only having recently moved back up to Massachusetts to attend high school, and was slowly trying to rebuild a relationship with her dad.

She and I had hit it off right away, as I had asked her many questions about the culture of Louisiana and I loved hearing her little twang of an accent that she had picked up. She was refreshing and different, making me immediately intrigued by her and excited to learn more.

She had a relatively nice freshman year from what I gathered. Made a couple best friends in a girl named Lacy and a guy named Mitchell, as well as kept good grades, and held a position on the track team. Drew persistently tried to get her to join the debate team with her, insisting she was very persuasive. The logical side of me took this as a reason for Drew to maintain her legacy as captain there. A living, breathing reminder that even if she wasn't there, Piper was. Piper had yet to cave, but I was expecting her too soon, — if only to get Drew to shut up.

And then there was Jason Grace. He was a junior on the varsity football team (not an easy feat) and kept good grades as well as the spot on the student council of the school. A total superman he was. He even looked like he spent his nights fighting villains. Short, cropped blond hair, electric blue eyes that sent shocks up peoples' spines, and a vicious looking scar on his lip that came from a fight with some thugs. (no, actually, I heard that it just came from him biting a stapler when he was two) But no matter what people said about Jason, he remained to be a respectable gentleman, taking everything in stride.

It was really no wonder why someone like Piper would fall for someone like him. He was admirable. His confidence in himself shone too, which I knew Piper seemed to really gravitate towards. She was the opposite, insecure, unsure, and able to balance him out if they were to date. The exact analogy for the situation would be a positive and a negative colliding. Opposites can attract, but only if the two people's personalities mesh and make the two people better, in my humble (right) opinion.

But there was the problem of him being Drew's ex-boyfriend to consider. Well, more like _almost_ ex-boyfriend. They'd never dated, although they had come really close. When she was in the eighth grade, and when Jason, Silena, and I were in seventh, they had flirted, texted each other, and acted goofy in the presence of one another. It was a typical thing, rumors spreading about them and whispers saying that they liked each other. But it never actually happened.

In what Drew called her "lowest moment" she left Jason hanging, abandoned him completely

—just because that's what everyone else did.

The Goode Middle School (GMS) football team had been in the state championship that year. They were expected to win. But they didn't because Jason Grace had missed the pass ten yards away from the end zone in a game they were losing by a field goal, and the other team intercepted it. It was such a bad moment for Jason. He should've caught it. As soon as people started glaring at Jason, hating him and spreading insults across the school like wildfire, he turned to her, and she wasn't there. She never so much as looked at him after that, except for maybe a couple of apologetic glances that would never catch his eye.

Silena and I were her shoulders to cry on. She felt so guilty, crying because she felt as though she was an awful human being for being so weak when Jason needed her support the most. But she soon accepted that she wasn't perfect, and moved on. Piper had no idea of their history together, but I assumed that it would have to be brought up one of these days if Jason and Piper were ever to become a thing. That is, if Piper ever gathered the courage to open her mouth and speak to him.

Me on the other hand, I'd never really ever had anything going on with boys. I'd dated a couple guys who didn't go to my school, but never for very long and never very serious. The only boy who'd I had ever really had deep feelings for was Luke Castellan. He still went to my school, in my junior class, but nothing had ever started between us.

Why? Because he hadn't been interested. I was his girlfriend-type-person. The one who supported him in his sports (he also played football) and I was the one who helped him with his grades, I had always helped cheer him up when he was down. But he'd never seen me in that way and never would. I was the definition of friend-zoned. And although we were still friends, I'd probably always be in the friend-zone. None of my guy-friends had crushes on me because they all had someone. Beckendorf had Silena, Travis had Katie, Connor had Lacy, Jason had every other girl in the school to think about, and Leo would only ever have eyes for one girl who'd yet to notice him, which was... Every girl. Every girl but me. He was scared of me, not that I took it personally. I never took anything to heart. It made life easier.

I'd accepted my role a long time ago. I wasn't the heartbreaker, the party girl, the adorably awesome and sweet girl. Those roles were already taken. I was the Dr. Phil. Philosophical was what I was. And that wasn't the sexiest trait to have I guess. So what better way to spend my time than to help my best friends with their problems?

"Drew, listen," I said into my phone carefully. I was using my shoulder to prop it next to my ear so I could make my breakfast with both hands and talk to her at the same time. It was an art I had perfected over the years. "Don't worry about settling down right now. That's what college is for. This is your senior year. Have fun, pass your finals, and worry about being a grown up when you absolutely have to, not before."

"Yeah, I guess," I heard her uncertain tone as she replied. "But I'd always assumed I'd have a serious boyfriend in high school. Not one that I would marry or anything like that, but one that'd stay with me in my heart forever."

"You want to fall in love in high school, knowing it would never work, and get your heartbroken?" I asked incredulously. I never understood why anyone put so much effort into high school relationships that would most likely never last when they could be building a better future for themselves instead.

"Come on Annabeth," Drew said, and I could tell she was rolling her eyes. "No one ever truly regrets falling in love with high school. It's what gets you through those years, loving the people you're around. Are you planning on cutting me, Pipes, and Silena out of your life completely after you graduate?"

"No, of course not, I love you guys." I answered, and that's when I picked up on where she was headed with her point. I could feel her smirk through the phone.

"Then who's to say you won't find a guy you love that much in high school?" I gulped, and my mind immediately drifted to Luke, and my heart fluttered as I thought about the goofy grin he gets on his face when I joke around with me.

I cleared my throat before answering, "I guess I don't know as much as I thought I did at these types of things."

"Exactly. I bet you even fall in love this year." She said this excitedly, and I could feel a sense of dread sink into my stomach at the mere thought of it.

"Don't count on it," I deadpanned, before hanging up and putting my head down on the counter in front of me, careful not to stick my face in my bagel with strawberry cream cheese. I took a deep breath in before picking it up again.

Drew didn't know what she was talking about. Right? Not a lot of people ever find their true love in high school. In high school, all people should be focused on is furthering their education and enjoying their last years before their lives go to shit in the real world. Some people get it through their heads that their high school lives are only temporary, but most don't. Some people think it's everything. It's not.

But what if she was right? What if the love of my life attends the very same school as me, and my upturned nose at high school dating is keeping me from seeing them clearly?

As I sat and ate my bagel at breakfast, with my parents and the twins, I kept staring at the empty seat in front of me. The one meant for my stepsister. Where was she?

"Hey Bellona, where's Reyna?" I asked my stepmom. She glanced at me quickly, but I spotted the pained expression on her face.

"She's already gone to school. Said she'll eat there." My face fell at her words. Reyna Avila-Ramirez-Arellano was my stepsister and probably my best friend on the entire planet. She had been my best friend anyway, but after last summer, I didn't think she wanted anything to do with me anymore.

"Oh. Ok." I said, but I knew that they could tell that I was disappointed. We'd always done everything together for as long as we had been stepsisters when our parents married when we were both four years old. We had gotten along so well, and I hated the idea of losing her because I had lost my temper one time...

"Sweetie, I know that the two of you will get past this." My father told me, laying his hand on top of mine comfortingly. I sighed and nodded at him half-heartedly, not even trying to hide the fact that I didn't believe him at all.

"Well, I'll see you all when I get home after school," I told them, leaning down to kiss all of them on the cheek individually.

"Have a good first day of junior year," My dad said as I grabbed my purse off of the coat rack that I had hung it on. I nodded in thanks before starting my walk to school. Reyna and I were in the same grade, but she's the one who owned a car. I would have gotten one when I turned sixteen as well, but my deep fear of driving kept me off the road and onto the sidewalk. My ability to overthink things never failed to terrify me to a point where I knew I'd never be calm enough to drive on the road. I had a hard enough time trying to keep my cool when my dad so much as lurched a little when pausing at a red light.

No, driving was not for me. Walking would have to do. Reyna had used to drive me places, but my betrayal had stopped her from doing that too. The walk to school wasn't even that long, ten minutes at the most, so I was fine with letting her have some space for a little while. Besides, who didn't need a little exercise every now and then?

Students were just starting to filter in when I arrived at school. Hugs between friends who hadn't seen each other in a while and teachers, with looks of despair that their vacation was over on their faces, were what I was returning to. Yippee.

"ANNABETH!" I heard for the second time that morning as I was opening my locker. I turned to see Drew Tanaka, Silena Beauregard, and Piper McLean running at me at once. I was proud to say that I didn't even flinch. Drew and Silena, being cheerleaders, were in their uniforms, which had the colors of the school (navy, white, and orange) in them. They were holding their pom poms, so I assumed they were early so that they could practice their routine. The cheerleaders performed every year to welcome all the students back, and to get all the freshmen excited for high school.

After they yelled my name, they basically tackled me to the ground before we all finally separated and looked at each other. Well, the waited for me to check my appearance first. They managed not to mess up my perfectly neat bun that I had fastened my curly blond hair into. It was so long that I had given up on fixing it, and mostly just pulled it up everyday. I really needed to get it cut.

I glanced down at myself, with my high top converse and my rolled up ripped jeans, checking for any other damage. When I didn't find anything, I addressed them. "How have the... Five days since I've last seen you been?"

"Well, for starters, we have a hot new neighbor who's coming to this school," Drew was beaming as she said this, and I rolled my eyes at her. Drew's new goal to have a serious boyfriend by the end of senior year left her looking at every eligible bachelor as a possible match.

"Just let me be a bridesmaid at the wedding please," I told her dryly. She laughed and smacked me playfully on the shoulder.

"Shut up! He's not my type, I'm talking about him being for you!" I glared at her as she continued bouncing on the balls of her feet, like this was the best news I could possibly ever hear. All three of them were smiling, as if they thought I'd actually be happy about this. I didn't like that they thought I was so utterly hopeless in love that they had to find someone for me.

"Not interested." I said coolly, examining my schedule again so I didn't have to look into Drew's startled and hurt expression.

"Come on, you're not really going to keep that mentality that no one's good enough for you in your head forever are you?" Drew asked, and I could tell by her tone that she was starting to get annoyed with my dismissal. And to be honest, she wasn't the only one getting annoyed.

"That's not my mentality and it never was," I snapped at her. "I'm just not interested in chasing after all of these high school boys who'll never be interested in me no matter how hard I try! So just leave me alone about it!"

I heard their sharp intakes of breath as I stalked away from them. I felt a little bad for snapping, but I had to walk away from them before they noticed the tears pooling in my eyes. I was so pathetic. It just sucked to not feel wanted by anybody, even if I truly believed in everything I said about high school dating. It just sucked not to be thought of as an option.

I sat in an abandoned hallway by the gym, sitting against the wall and pulling my long, lanky legs into my chest, trying to make myself as small as possible. I felt someone sit down next to me, but I didn't look up because I thought it would be Drew, Piper, or Silena.

It wasn't.

"Chase?" When I heard his raspy voice, I looked up into his blue eyes, my heart leaping out of my chest. Luke. I quickly wiped the tears from under my eyes as I faced him, hoping he didn't notice. If he did notice, he didn't say anything.

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?" He asked, placing his large, callused hand on my knee, giving it a light squeeze. I grinned. He was such a good friend to me. But a friend was all he was.

"Yeah I'm fine, just got a little queasy at the thought of the year to come." I answered. He nodded in understanding.

"I know how you feel. One more year until our lives get turned upside down and we have to start thinking about the rest of our lives."

"That's definitely not a long time," I said in agreement, the realization jolting me. I'd be choosing my college next year. Where did all of the time go?

"But you'll be fine," He told me, smirking. "You're the smartest girl I know."

I blushed under his gaze, "I'm sure that's not true."

"It sure is," He protested. "And it always shocks me that all of these guys aren't flocking you. You're quite the catch, Annabeth." Then why don't _you_ , Luke Castellan, want me?

"Thanks," I said simply, smiling at him. "I feel a lot better now."

"No problem, glad I could help," He replied patting me on the knee affectionately. "Besides, the team doesn't need our favorite junior football trainer feeling sick."

I'd been a football trainer for the boys since I was a freshman. It hadn't been hard to stand out as an option over the other girls. I was pretty much the only girl that wasn't a cheerleader that loved the sport of football. My duties included handing out water and helping the team strategize mostly. Strategizing was my favorite part, the part I was really good at.

"Yeah," I said. "Who knows how much you guys would lose if not for me?" He scoffed before helping me off the ground, both of us laughing as we made our ways to the gym, sitting in the bleachers being filled in with teenagers.

If only he felt the same way I did. That would really prove Drew right, now wouldn't it?"

. . .

 **It's been awhile, I know, but I finished! This chapter was a little hard to write, as Annabeth really has no dramatic past involving romance, as you can tell if you read it. I'm sorry that this chapter was a little short, chapters with mainly only backstories in them can only be dragged out so long, you know?**

 **I know Luke cheering Annabeth up might have felt a little rushed, but I just meant to make it where it was clear that Luke was really good at making Annabeth feel happy.**

 **I know you're all probably curious as to what happened with her and Reyna, and I promise you'll find out, it just didn't seem like the right time when Reyna didn't even make an appearance in the chapter,**

 **Speaking of Reyna, please let me know how you feel about her role in this story! I'd love to hear your opinions.**

 **I really like portraying Annabeth as more vulnerable. She comes off really confident, but she's a lot more hurt than people can really see. She has this wall up.**

 **Who'll be the the one to tear it down?**

 **Review goal: 5 reviews (THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR WONDERFUL REVIEWS LAST CHAPTER, YOU ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST!)**

 **~Molly xoxoxoxoxoxo**


	3. I Form an Alliance

**-Percy-**

Unfortunately, my three pretty neighbors were nowhere in sight when I arrived at Goode High School that morning. I climbed off of my motorcycle, which I had named Blackjack when I had first gotten it, and awkwardly prepared myself as I walked into the doors of the school.

The office was in the front, on the right. I was able to pinpoint it quickly, as it had two ladies on phones behind a glass door, with annoyed-looking students tapping their feet impatiently. Both things were commonly found in a high school office,

"Ok!" One of the women screeched at all of the students. "If you're here for a referral slip because you forgot your ID, then go ask your homeroom teacher for it! I'm sick of telling you all that, they have referral slips too!" Over half of the students filtered out, groaning. Yikes, I hoped I remembered my ID every day.

All the other students in the office just seemed to be waiting for something that the secretaries had already addressed, seeing as how nobody got up to ask them anything, so I decided it was my turn.

"Excuse me?" I said politely. One of the secretaries, a young woman with straight brown hair and blond highlights, looked up at me with an irritated gaze, which quickly softened when she looked at me.

"Yes? What can I help you with, darling?" She smiled at me, showing off her blindingly white teeth, winking at me. I tried to fight off a blush as I scratched my hand behind my head nervously.

"Well, Miss Jeeter," I said, reading off of her name tag, "I'm new this year, and I had pre-football season trials with the coach the day the new students got their schedules and IDs. Can I get mine now?"

The smile on her face faltered a bit. "Well I can get you your schedule, but the ID would take a day to get printed out."

"Why isn't it already ready?" I asked, my eyebrows crinkling in confusion.

"Well considering nearly all of the new students, excluding you, got their IDs that day, it was assumed that you changed your mind about enrolling."

"So, my ID was thrown away?" She nodded her head sadly at me.

"But why was I assumed to not be coming anymore? It's not like it's a crazy thing to miss something for football. Do all the new recruits have to wait to get their IDs?"

"Actually," She said, grinning brightly. "Since you're the first new football recruit the school has had in over a decade, the staff kind of forgot there was one this year. You must be quite impressive."

I felt my face grow hot at her praise. I had tried to forget about that little fact the past couple of weeks, trying not to get too nervous, and I'd done a decent enough job considering I actually did forget it entirely. Until now. I'd always tried to never think too highly of myself. I didn't want to be exceptionally perfect or anything, which I wasn't, and I'd never liked to be thought of that way. "Oh, well I'll pick it up tomorrow then," I said easily, smiling to mask the nervousness growing in my stomach.

"Wait!" She said suddenly. I noticed her write something down on a sticky note, and she handed it to me. It read:

 _Please excuse this student of not wearing his ID, he'll have it tomorrow._

It had her signature on the bottom. "Thank you Miss Jeeter. I'm Percy Jackson by the way." She nodded, and typed away on her computer.

She gave me my schedule and told me, "Keep that sticky note handy, the students wear their IDs all day, so you're likely to get stopped a lot by teachers today. But since I signed it, you won't get into trouble."

"Thank you again," I said waving as I walked out.

As I open the door, I heard the guy closest to me scoff and hissed, "Well you're here for football and Miss Jeeter already has a crush on you. Guys like you just have it so easy, don't they?"

I gritted my teeth, refraining from causing trouble with this guy, so I just ignored him and walked out. He didn't know anything about me, so I didn't care what he thought about "guys like me" as it wasn't really worth my time to sit and dwell on it.

I looked at the schedule in my hands as I walked down the hallway:

 _Homeroom- Magnolia Johnson 112_

 _First block- History with Coach Brunner 105_

 _Second block- Algebra with Faith Dobbs 210_

 _Lunch- A 115_

 _Third block- Science with David McCaffery 217_

 _Fourth block- English with Paul Blofis 109_

 _Athletic PE- football_

I was quite shocked to realize that Paul would be my English teacher. He hadn't told me anything, but probably only because he didn't like to look at his rosters before the school year started. He liked to match faces with names instantly.

Well, he certainly wouldn't have any trouble with mine.

. . .

Homerooms at Goode High were determined by last name. So everyone in my homeroom class seemed to have last names that started with I, J, K, and L. I didn't bother with memorizing people's faces as Mrs. Johnson called them off the roster, I'd only be seeing these people for ten minutes every day after all.

"Perseus Jackson." Mrs. Johnson called out. I winced as she said my real name. I hadn't heard it in awhile since my last teachers knew not to call me that.

"I go by Percy." I told her politely. She nodded in response and wrote something down on her paper.

"Psst, hey," I heard a girl's voice as someone behind me tapped on my shoulder. I was on the second to last row in the very left corner of the classroom, so this girl was completely wedged in the corner.

"Yeah?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow. She blushed slightly, pink flooding her cheeks in a cute way. She had curly golden brown ringlets to just below her chin, lightly tanned skin, and bright ice blue eyes.

"You're being recruited for football, right?" She asked softly as Mrs. Johnson continued down the roster. I nodded in response. "That's cool, I'm a new football trainer this year. I'm a freshman."

"Nice," I grinned at her. "We didn't have those at my old school, but it would have probably helped us win more games." To be completely honest, I didn't really know if anything could have helped my last team win more games. Or any, for that matter.

"Probably so," She agreed. "Girls are known to be more logical... although I don't know if one could say that about me, I'm kind of..." She trailed off, a thoughtful look on her face, her eyes looking spacey.

"Stupid?" I suggested. She glared at me.

"No, not stupid! Just a little bit blonde I guess."

"But you're a brunette." I pointed out, raising my eyebrows.

"Doesn't mean I don't act like the typical blonde, although none of the blondes I know are stupid anyway. It's a hideous stereotype."

"Point taken." I thought about it for a second. "I guess you could say I'm a little blonde as well, I've never been the cleverest guy."

"As opposed to the usually sharp-witted football players?" Sarcasm oozed from her voice, and I glared at her. She smirked in response.

"You're a smartass, little freshie."

"You'll get used to it if you keep sitting there, I'm sure of it." She responded, glancing at her schedule. I followed her gaze and looked at the name printed on the top. _Felicity Jessamine Lovelac_ e.

"Well despite that, you have a really pretty name Felicity." I told her. She blushed again, only the color was a little darker this time.

"Thanks Percy," She said. "But I know Felicity can be kind of a mouthful, much like Perseus I'm sure, so Lissa or Lissie will do, I answer to both."

"No problem."

We sat in silence for a few moments, her reading a book, only lifting her head when her name was called after a pretty dark skinned girl named Hazel Levesque. When I looked back at her after her name was called, I noticed her fingers shaking slightly on the book she was holding.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"I'm fine." She said simply, hardly looking up. I rolled my eyes and pulled the book away from her face, placing it on the desk in front of me. I liked it when people told me how they were feeling outright. It saved time. She shrieked indignantly. "Hey!"

"Are you nervous or something?"

"About what?" She snapped, looking irritated. "I've got nothing to be nervous about, but you do I imagine."

"Yeah I'm nervous," I admitted. "But a freshman trainer is allowed to feel scared too, you do know that, right Miss Lovelace?"

"I guess." She said simply, avoiding my gaze.

"I'll tell you what," I said. "You got my back this afternoon, and I got yours." I held out my hand for her to shake. She looked at me like I was stupid, rolled her eyes, before smirking and shaking my hand in return.

"Glad that's settled."

. . .

First block had a lot more students in it than homeroom did, but I managed to snag a seat in the back, behind a guy with curly dark brown hair, and next to a blonde guy who was sitting behind a familiar girl. "Silena!"

The perky blonde squealed when she saw me. "Percy! It's good to see you!"

Considering Silena was the only one of her sisters in my class, she helped me find my way around. We had all of the same classes, which she said was because most of the people in athletics got grouped together so they all stayed on the same course of learning.

How _constricting._

"And I say most, but if you're a genius, like Annabeth, you can be put in higher classes. She's taking damn college classes, can you believe it?" We were walking down the hallway on the way to lunch, and it was a good thing we were too, my stomach had been growling for the last half of the Algebra block, making me even less focused on math than usual.

"Who's Annabeth?" I asked. It was a pretty name that rolled easily off of my tongue, no shortened nickname needed, unlike mine or Felicity's.

"Oh, she's my best friend, as well as Piper's and Drew's too." She explained. "We're a tight little group, the four of us."

"That's cool." I said, stuffing my hands into my pockets. I'd never had a tight-nit group of friends, I was always pretty easygoing with everyone.

"You'll get to meet her in just a second, at lunch—"

"Oh shit, I completely forgot! I was supposed to have lunch with Paul today in his classroom!" I face palmed myself, just remembering. I'd made plans with him before I had even met the three sisters.

Silena's face fell a little in disappointment, but a second later, her usual happy smile was back on her face. "Oh, that's ok! Paul Blofis, right? Your stepdad?" When I had been eating the cookies with the girls, I'd explained the whole moving situation to them.

"Yeah, him." I said. "I'll meet her and sit with you guys tomorrow, alright?"

"Actually, you'll meet her this afternoon." Silena corrected. "She's a football trainer."

 _Isn't everyone?_

"Oh cool, I'll be sure to look out for her." I promised.

I waved goodbye to Silena. I walked down the stairs and barged through the door to Paul's classroom, catching him in the act of opening his fridge.

"What did you bring again?" I asked him, sitting on a desk in the front.

"Sit your ass _in_ the desk, not on top of it." I sighed but did as he said.

"Ok, I'm in it. Can you answer me now?"

"Your mom made us both chicken sandwiches," He said, rummaging through his lunch sack. He tossed me a blue Powerade before finding my sandwich with a contorted look on his face. Ah, I knew that look on his face. It was disgust. " _This one_ is yours."

He handed the sandwich to me. It was just like his, except mine was lathered on with this special blue mayonnaise that my mom had found. It didn't look pleasing, I'd admit, it looked like slime, but it tasted even better than regular mayonnaise.

"Are you prepared for practice, Percy?" Paul asked me as he took a swallow of water.

"Yeah, I've got my clothes packed, and some water—"

"You know that's not what I mean." I remained silent and kept my head down, not wanting to acknowledge the butterflies swirling in my stomach. "You're the first new recruit to this football team in ages. A lot of heads are going to be turned to you." He sighed before continuing. "I'll ask you again. Are you prepared?"

"I guess we'll see, won't we?"

. . .

 **I'm so sorry. I haven't taken much time to write, my life has been pretty busy. And this chapter isn't my best, it's pretty short too, so again, I'm sorry.**

 **I didn't mean to take this long. Filler chapters where I have to explain so much information through mostly dialogue are the hardest to write for me.**

 **But now that the school mess is done and over with, we can get back to the fun stuff :)**

 **What do you think of Lissa/Lissie? (I haven't decided which nickname I like better, but hey, she answers to both) She is an adorable OC that I've created for this story, and she will be playing a bigger part than you probably think in this story.**

 **I love her.**

 **REVIEW GOAL: 5 (We didn't quite reach this amount last chapter, but it will remain my goal for right now) THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO HEAR YOUR FEEDBACK!**

 **~Molly xoxoxoxo**


	4. A Slight Overreaction

**-Percy-**

Paul's words rang in my ears for the rest of the school day like the sound of an alarm going off in he morning, letting one know that they have to get up and stop dreaming.

In other words — not pleasant.

As I stood in the coach's office, in the velvety, plushy cushioned chair, I had to focus really hard to not break away from his intense gaze. Coach Gleeson Hedge wasn't a large man, but he was tough and brutal. His football team didn't have the reputation they did because he was _soft._

The assistant coach on the other hand, — the same could not be said. Grover Underwood was young, twenty-three at the absolute oldest I guessed, and he sympathized with me because he had been under Hedge's ruling only a few years prior.

"The school board made me promise that the first practice would be purely getting to know everyone—" Coach Hedge started, rolling his eyes.

"We're doing this so you can get to know your teammates, trainers, and cheerleaders as people so they're not judging you solely based on your playing." Coach Underwood interrupted. He must have noticed me paling because he quickly added, "Not because we think they will, just a precaution because they've never had to get used to a new teammate before."

I nodded, feeling slightly better. "Ok, great, so I don't have to change or anything?"

"No," Underwood answered. "Just leave your clothes in your locker for tomorrow."

Hedge looked completely bored with this exchange and sharply ordered, "Well let's go you two cupcakes."

We did as he asked, Coach Underwood and I falling behind Hedge as he lead us to the locker room. "He's really not that intimidating unless you give him reason to be." My younger coach reassured me kindly, in a quiet voice that Hedge couldn't hear.

"Thanks for that, Coach Underwood." I replied genuinely.

"It's Grover," He corrected. "And no problem."

Within a few minutes, we all arrived at the locker room, which was a lot nicer than the locker room at my old school. That was the first thing that I noticed. Instead of just a door, it had a huge velvet blue curtain at the entrance, leading into a large circular room with really big lockers, a fridge, and enough showers to insure that no one would have to wait for a turn.

The second thing I noticed was the large football team, trainers, and cheerleaders all staring me down, some like I was a piece of meat and they were starving wolves, and others just seemed curious.

"Alright cupcakes," Hedge spoke loudly, forcing them all to look at him. "This is Percy Jackson, you're new teammate. Don't kill him." A few snorted at this, and I felt my face burn slightly.

Not knowing what else to do, I just raised my hand and waved. "Um, hi?" It came out lamely, like a question. After I put my hand down awkwardly, one asshole mockingly did the same thing, making some of his friends around him snicker.

"Hey, shut up Sloan." Another guy snapped at him. This guy had short, cropped blond hair and electric blue eyes. He stood up, and I realized that he was the same height as me, which was pretty tall as I was about 6'2." He held out his hand for me to take. "I'm Jason Grace."

I realized that saying my name would be very redundant as Hedge just said it, so I just took his hand and nodded. I followed him back to his group of friends, which included Silena, who was a cheerleader. Other people in his friend group were introduced to me as well, including Charles Beckendorf, Travis, Connor, Leo, Katie, Lacy, and... Reyna. I'll admit, when I looked at Reyna, my heart beat a little faster in my chest.

She had long, silky black hair to her waist, large warm brown eyes with long eyelashes, and plump pink lips. Her skin was a pretty ivory, her nose was defined, and her expression was serious, which made me think that she wasn't to be messed with under any circumstances. Not that I would anyway, I would never mess with such a beautifully majestic person such as herself. I learned that she was a junior football trainer, and I was starting to think all of my favorite people were going to either be on the team, a trainer, or a cheerleader. Drew and Piper were the exceptions to this observation, of course.

As I thought of football trainers, I was starting to wonder where Felicity was, and as if on cue, the curtains were open again and two girls came stumbling in. One was Felicity, and the other was a tall blond girl that I hadn't seen before.

Hedge rolled his eyes. "Annabeth, why are you and the freshie late?"

Felicity looked ticked off. "My name is Felicity thank you—"

The blond girl, Annabeth, opened her mouth to speak, cutting Felicity off before she could do much damage. Probably a smart thing to do. "A teacher was talking to Felicity and I about a fight that had broken out in our hallway. We were witnesses, so they had to hold us back for a little while." Hedge accepted this answer, and motioned for the two to sit down. Felicity sat down by me, and Annabeth went to sit by Silena. The two starting chatting to themselves and I realized who the girl was. Annabeth, the best friend of Silena, Piper, and Drew.

She was cute. She had darker, honey blond shade of hair, as well as big, stormy gray eyes, and a slightly upturned nose. She had a pretty white smile, and she had such long, tan legs that she couldn't comfortable sit on the beanbag chair she was in, so she had to keep them drawn back against her chest.

"Alright everybody, stand up!" Hedge barked out to them. "We have a few team-building exercises planned out for you, and you're going to do them."

When everybody stood, I realized that Reyna was actually taller than Annabeth. Not by much, only a couple of inches, and I could see that Reyna was curvier and more filled out, and that Annabeth was lanky with long, skinny limbs. Silena looked almost comical in between them, as she stood so much shorter. She seemed to be acting almost as a barrier between them, and I noticed that Reyna was pointedly trying to avoid Annabeth, and Annabeth looked as if she was trying to catch Reyna's gaze.

I assumed that this exchange meant that these two had recently had a falling out, which I knew sucked from my own experiences in life. Especially if one knew that it was there fault and they felt as though they could do nothing to change it.

"We're starting off easy," Coach Hedge began after everyone was standing. "Everyone cross their arms right over left and grab the hands of the people next to you."

I grabbed Jason's hand with my right hand (he was on my left) and my stomach gave a little lurch when I realized that Reyna was to my right. I grabbed her right hand and tried to ignore the jolt of electricity that seemed to flow through my veins at her mere touch.

"Ok, everyone ready? — Haha just kidding, this one is lame, we're doing something more fun." Hedge said, chuckling. We all looked at him with puzzled expressions before proceeding to try and break out of the circle we were already in.

It didn't turn out to be the easiest thing in the world as Reyna jerked her hand out of Silena's on her right the same time as I pulled my left back, so Reyna slightly stumbled on to me. I instinctively grabbed her waist to steady her, glad my Greek complexion hid my steadily flaming cheeks. I glanced at her to see if she was glaring daggers at me for touching her, but she just had her cheeks highlighted a light pink, staring fixedly on what seemed to be a very interesting speck on the wall so she wouldn't have to look at me.

She finally looked away from the wall as Grover stepped back into the locker room with a box of supplies. "You said we needed: 4 small buckets and 4 big buckets, 4 ropes, 4 bungee cord loops, 8 bungee cords, and 100 plastic balls right, coach?"

We all looked at Hedge incredulously. He just smirked. "That's right Underwood, now everyone follow me outside!"

I had seen a glimpse of the football field from driving to this school that morning, but I couldn't help but gape in awe as I stood before it in all it's glory.

The field itself was bright green turf, with the center having a huge bronze pegasus surrounded by a royal blue circle. A track with the same blue color stretched outside of it in an oval, and the benches were cushioned and had — seat warmers! The stands were all cushioned too, with a white seated section in the middle representing the student body, blue seats on the other sides for regular spectators, and along the top row had bronze seats for scouts. The visitor's side didn't get the same luxury. They just had ordinary silver benches and stands.

When the school said they went all out, they definitely didn't mean that for the other team.

Reyna, recovered from our previous incident, must have noticed my expression because she snorted in a very attractive way. "You're ogling now, but you get over our fancy school when you see the looks of hatred on opposing teams' faces."

"But who cares about them?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "They're probably just jealous that they don't go here."

Reyna rolled her eyes, but I don't think she was mad at me, more like she understood the way I felt, but was convinced that I was wrong. "They're annoyed at the people who think that's what they think." She had her pink, kissable lips curled in a smirk, knowing that she had won the arguement. I conceded, nodding at her.

I doubted that the other students shared her opinions however.

Hedge and Grover had set up whatever game we were playing while Reyna and I had talked, and I raised my eyebrows at what I saw. The big buckets had been filled with a mysterious liquid, and all stood nearly in the middle of the circle, a couple yards away from it, and were positioned facing four different directions.

Grover had a basket in his hand with a bunch of blocks in it. "There will be four teams, and there are four colors in this basket representing those teams. There are also numbers on the blocks, so that whoever has the exact same block as you is who you'll try and complete your part of the challenge with and at what point you'll go." He started going around and asking everyone to pick one. Meanwhile, Hedge was putting out obstacles, which just ended up being mats and step up boxes that were often used in weightlifting, which increased a little in height as it went on. The last one for each station was about three feet tall and it stopped a few yards away from the buckets.

I tried to calculate just how many people were out there. There were fourteen football trainers, three for each grade — plus an extra for juniors and seniors, sixteen cheerleaders, and exactly forty-two football players. So eighteen people on each team and nine pairs.

I suddenly got a question in my mind, and I turned to Reyna and asked, "Does this team not have a pegasus mascot?"

She laughed before replying. "Yeah, it's the guy on the team who would normally be referred to as 'the water boy' if us football trainers didn't already fill that role."

"So it's the weakest link?" At her nod, I mulled it over in my mind. It was hard to imagine that such an elite team had a teammate that paled in comparison to the rest of them. "Who is it?"

"A guy named Leo Valdez." She said, standing closer to me so she could discreetly point him out and not be rude and obvious. I followed her gaze and saw a kid that wasn't exactly scrawny, but definitely wasn't as big as the rest of the team.

"He's a kicker." I assumed, not really stating it as a question, and only noticed that this was wrong when I felt Reyna's body shaking with laughter from beside me.

"No, he's actually the backup quarterback." My eyes widened and she guffawed at my expense.

"You're kidding!"

"No, I'm not," She said seriously. "It's just that Jason Grace is such a star compared to him that no one could ever think that Leo would ever touch the field."

"That's a bummer." I said simply, feeling sorry for the guy. He didn't seem like he was upset about anything though, if the way he was smirking and seemed to be cracking jokes was anything to go off of.

"Not really," Reyna shrugged nonchalantly. "He and Jason are the best of friends."

I smiled at the thought, and Reyna and I stood in silence as the basket made it's way around to everyone.

When Grover got to me, I closed my eyes and reached in. I pulled out a white block with a number nine on it. I sighed. Going last meant attention for me, and I really needed it to be good attention.

The colors were mostly the colors of the school: blue, white, bronze, and the completely random and no doubt intentional hot pink. I chuckled when I saw Felicity smiling over her hot pink block, her face quickly turning to horror when Matt Sloan walked up with the copy of it, and dragged her by the hand to the station where the hot pink team seemed to be gathering around their small bucket.

I saw other white blocks and I jogged over there. I had Jason, Katie, and that girl, Annabeth, on my team. I fiddled with my block in the back while other people found their matching blocks in front of me. Annabeth eventually settled in beside me.

"I'm nine too." She said quietly, barely looking at me. I wondered if she was shy, but she didn't seem like it from the way she had addressed Hedge about why she was late. She had seemed assertive then, so what had changed?

"That's great." I replied, holding my block out to her, and we awkwardly clicked our blocks together like we were toasting champagne. Now that she stood closer to me, I could see that her hair was curly from the hair escaping out the back of her bun and the shorter pieces curled around her face. It seemed like her hair was just dying to break free from the neatness that she had placed it in.

"CUPCAKES LISTEN UP!" Hedge shouted from his position. "THE 4 SMALL BUCKETS CONTAIN PLASTIC BALLS FOR EVERY ONE OF THE FOUR TEAMS. THE CENTER IS THE WASTE ZONE, IF SOMEONE FALLS INTO IT, THEY ARE OUT AND THE NEXT PAIR HAS TO MAKE UP THEIR BALLS. THE BUNGEES ARE ATTACHED TO THE TWO PEOPLE WHOSE TURN IT IS AS WELL AS THE CORD LOOP ON THE END. EVERYONE MUST GO AND THE FIRST TEAM TO GET OVER THE OBSTACLES LEADING TO THE CENTER WITH THEIR BALLS AND MAKE THEM ALL INTO THEIR LARGE BUCKET WINS!"

"Did you get that?" I asked Annabeth.

"Yeah, for the most part." She replied. "I guess we'll have to figure it out if we don't completely get it, he's not saying it again." Her expression was so matter-of-fact that I nearly laughed, but I stifled it, not knowing how she'd take it.

The game looked really fun, especially since we all realized that we'd be doing boring trust exercises if we hadn't been doing this instead. The hot pink team was dominating. The best pair was Felicity and Matt without a doubt. Matt was pretty considerate about the fact that Felicity would probably not be able to get up with him, so he waited after he jumped each obstacle for her. The cord got tauter and tauter the farther they got, and when it was time to shoot their plastic balls, Felicity proved to be amazing. She got hers in pretty fast, which was impressive considering the distance. Matt finished after her, and she felt so proud of herself that she even accepted a high-five from him.

"Do you and Lissie know each other well?" I asked Annabeth while we watched.

"Not really well, but she's my neighbor." She answered before adding, "—Why? You looking for a freshman girlfriend to set you up with?" Her voice was teasing, so I smiled. So she wasn't as tense as she seemed.

"No, she's just a friend I made in homeroom." I told her. I didn't know why, but the idea that Annabeth thought I might have liked Felicity irked me. I figured it was just the idea of dating a freshman straight out of middle school that I found weird and nothing else. I had no idea at it was something else entirely.

"Number nine whites, get ready, you're next." Grover told us. The eights had just finished and Annabeth and I hustled to get the bungee equipment around us before bolting.

I wasn't very considerate. I'm the biggest jerk in the world.

I hopped right on the first obstacle without realizing that Annabeth was doing the same thing, and I jerked her forward and her face nearly slammed into the side, but she put her hands and feet out to brace herself. I was just glad she had quick reflexes.

"I'm sorry!" I said over the noise of the other competitors. We seemed to be tied for the lead with the hot pink team. Like that wasn't any pressure or anything.

I heard her quick response, not really understanding it, but I hoped it was an eager acceptance to my apology.

We managed to get to the top pretty quickly, and the highest step up was only about three feet tall, so nothing fatal would happen. Only a few people had fallen into the waste zone, but none from either white or hot pink, so it put the pressure on us to do well.

Too much, in fact.

Annabeth and I were trying our hardest to get the balls into the bucket. I was doing pretty well, but she didn't seem to have any coordination whatsoever, so the only ball that she had made was strictly by chance. Fortunately, the cheerleader on the opposing team seemed to being having the same issue. Unfortunately, she had a more patient partner.

When Annabeth missed the fifth in a row, I threw my hands up in anger, jumping slightly to the side. It jerked the rope that served to bind me to Annabeth, so when I jerked, she jerked... off of the box and into the waste zone as the cheerleader, Tamsin, made the winning shot.

Looking back on it, I should have been angry with my self. But then, I was angry with poor, clumsy, Annabeth. She already looked defeated, I didn't need to do that. But it didn't stop me from whisper-shouting to her.

"Are you kidding me! You can't keep both of your damn feet on the platform?" I told her fiercely. "This was an important first impression that I wanted to make on the team and you just blew it!"

She looked like she wanted to retort, her face was contorting and turning red, but she didn't blow up at me. Instead, tears welled up in her eyes. She stood up, brushed off her clothes, and ran in the other direction, back towards the school.

The cheers of the other team faded away. I barely noticed a very unsure-looking Reyna running after her, her long black hair flying like a banner behind her.

And I stood there, not feeling lousy about losing to a team whose color had been hot pink, but feeling lousy that I had let my temper get the best of me.

. . .

 **Hi, thanks so much for reading!**

 **It's been awhile and I'm sorry, it took a little while for me to realize how I wanted this chapter to go. I was extra motivated to get this chapter finished though, because I have testing coming up and I don't know how updating is going to go while I'm struggling through that.**

 **I'll do my best.**

 **I'm sorry if there were any mistakes, I'm not proofreading this because I really want to post this before I go to bed.**

 **I also have an announcement.**

 **The chapter POVs are like this:**

 **1\. Percy**

 **2\. Annabeth**

 **3\. Percy**

 **4\. Percy**

 **5\. Annabeth**

 **6\. Annabeth**

 **7\. Percy**

 **8\. Percy**

 **9\. Percy**

 **10\. POLL FOR REVIEWERS every TEN chapters**

 **From then on, Percy and Annabeth will alternate every three chapters.**

 **Every ten chapters will be a poll-voted POV. I'll post that when I get closer to ten chapters, maybe around eight chapters.**

 **Anyway I hope you enjoyed!**

 **Review goal: still 5 (we reached it last chapter, THANK YOU!)**

 **~Molly xoxoxoxo**


	5. What I Did Last Summer

**-Annabeth-**

I didn't notice the sound of footsteps behind me over the sound of my own slapping hard on the school floor. I was running back to the locker rooms to get my stuff before the others came back. I felt lucky to be wearing converse that day because my shoes didn't slide like regular tennis shoes would have.

I had run away after the new guy, Percy Jackson, had screamed at me, and not because I was scared or that I was about to burst into tears or anything like that. It was because I thought it might have been my fault after all. And I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy, he must have been under a lot of pressure and I blew his first chance to really impress his teammates and show them what kind of competitor he was. Besides, the look on his face after he exploded didn't show a bad guy. It showed a nice guy with a temper on him, and could personally relate to tempers ruining relationships.

Just ask Reyna.

But maybe I was giving him a little too much sympathy. And if I was, it was probably because of his outstanding looks. A sharp, angular face with high cheekbones and a chiseled chin, as well as adorable big sea green eyes that could probably get anyone to do whatever he wanted, and he was extremely tall, with a Greek tan and a muscular physique. Maybe the beautiful structure that was his person blinded me from the actual truth:

He was just an asshole.

I had planned to just grab my things and quickly bolt back to my home, but I found myself sitting on one of the benches in the locker room, (which probably had a lot of butt sweat and who knows what else from the football team weathered in the wood) pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapped my arms around them, and actually did burst into tears. I could never do anything right.

I had my head burrowed in my legs so I didn't see her come in, and I only looked up when she started rubbing my back soothingly. Reyna stood over me, her black hair reaching long enough to tickle my nose. I stood up and hugged my stepsister. She stiffened and hesitated slightly before returning the gesture.

"I'm sorry to see you so upset Annabahnana." She said to me, patting my back softly. I was surprised. She used the affectionate nickname that she had called me since we were younger, when she'd first moved in.

"Your name is Annabeth?" She had asked years before, when the two of us were four years old. "That's _so_ weird. Can I call you by your middle name?"

I had blushed and replied, "It's actually even weirder. It's Siobahn." Siobahn was an Irish name that was pronounced like _"Sha-Von"_ and it came to be after a trip to Ireland had gotten my father all pumped about its interesting culture. Annabeth Siobahn Chase had a interesting ring to it, I supposed, but it sure made introducing myself an odd experience.

For the first couple months, Reyna had kept stumbling over my name, calling me Annabanana by accident, and when she finally learned to say it, she had declared, "I would make Annabanana your nickname, but I feel like it's a far too common nickname, so I want to call you Anna-bahn-nana, the sound of Anna- _Vah_ -nana sounds so much cooler." I had agreed, and it had stuck, along with her far less eccentric nickname, Rey-Rey.

"I feel awful!" I told her, her face muffling my voice. I cried much softer now, and started to take deep, soothing breaths. Reyna really knew how to calm a person down.

"You shouldn't, it's him to blame." She told me. I noticed that her voice wasn't quite as warm as the voice she had usually used with me, but it definitely wasn't as cold and forced as what she had been addressing me with lately, if she even chose to acknowledge me at all.

"But it was his chance to impress his new teammates—" I began.

"I didn't say he was a horrible douche, I just meant that he acted like one because he let his temper get the best of him. I talked to him before that, he's actually a great guy." I noticed her cheeks turn slightly pink as she said this, and I suppressed a smirk. I didn't want to drive her away by prying into her personal business.

"Well I'll remember that if he tries to come and talk to me." I told her, feeling slightly bitter. He probably wouldn't try to apologize, it was just me that he had hurt after all, not anyone significant.

"He will," Reyna said matter-of-factly. "He was actually headed after me, but I waved at him to stop."

"Did the team hear what he said to me?" I asked her, feeling sick just thinking about it. It would be terrible for Percy if that's how they perceived him, and I wasn't used to being the victim in any sort of situation. I wouldn't know how to handle that. Probably not well because when people usually tried to show me any sort of sympathy, I tended to scowl and snap at them until they didn't bother anymore.

"No," She answered to my relief, although my relief became less when she added, "I just noticed the cold look of a 'temper about to blow' on his face and didn't want to be as messy as one that I experienced firsthand last summer."

I was pretty sure my wince was more than a little noticeable, but she pretended not to see it, and the cold expression on her face brought back painful memories of the summer where I had torn our relationship apart.

. . .

 **July 22nd, last summer:**

I shrieked in delight as my stepsister and best friend, Reyna, splashed me with water from where she stood in the middle of the lake. The cool water felt nice against my boiling skin, and I hurriedly waded into the lake after her to return the favor.

Her boyfriend, Declan Beaufort, stood on the deck above the lake, petting his golden retriever, Jamie. The lake that Reyna and I were splashing each other in was off of his family's cabin there, and they'd agreed to let the three of us spend the weekend there.

Declan had also brought their two dogs, Jamie, as well as the dog's littermate, Cersei. Cersei was definitely a lot more guarded than her brother, she was almost downright evil, but the two dogs shared a bond closer than any other dogs I'd ever seen.

Reyna and I got so distracted in our splash war, that we didn't notice Declan jumping in until we felt the massive wave of water submerging our heads.

I heard my sister's shriek of mock rage before she jumped on Declan's back, wrapping her long, tan legs around his six pack of abs. His wet red hair stood in tufts as Reyna playfully ruffled it. I laughed at their cute exchange, but noticed that Declan didn't seem quite as amused as he usually did and I felt extremely baffled when he shook her off.

Reyna didn't seem to care as she just used this as an excuse to splash some more water in my direction. I felt cool water hit me in the face pretty hard and I shrieked. I could hear Declan laughing behind me so I turned around and punched him in his rock hard chest.

Ouch.

My fingers stung a little, so I opted for elbowing him instead, but he grabbed my wrist before I could and wrapped his other hand around my other wrist to restrain me.

"Haha, can't hit me now little Bethy." He taunted at me. I rolled my eyes before kicking him between his legs. He loosened his grip on my wrists as he doubled over in pain. I tried to contain my laugh behind my hand, but failed.

After he had finally stood up straight again, Reyna had moved up onto the deck, and was filling some papers out.

"Don't tell me that you're doing homework Reyna," Declan said incredulously. "Even Annabeth's not doing anything." I frowned at his characterization of me, but kept my mouth shut.

"It's not homework," Reyna said. "I forgot that I had to fill out papers for that program I was telling you about and I remembered that they were in my bag that I brought here."

"What program?" I asked. I was rarely confused or lost in a situation, but I felt hopelessly lost to what she was talking about. My confusion turned to anxiety when she gulped and turned a shade paler.

"Why don't we all go get dressed in regular clothes, I'll take us all out for an early dinner and we can talk about it there." Declan said this in a very reassuring tone and I almost felt like nothing was off at all, but I had a bad feeling about whatever program it was that Reyna wanted to join.

But instead of protesting, I managed to choke out, "Uh, sure, I'm fine with that idea. Reyna?" Declan and Reyna seemed to have a silent argument with their eyes before Reyna reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"Perfect."

. . .

We each had our own rooms in the cabin, which was a big plus, but there were only two bathrooms and I was the slowest at retrieving my towel and clothes, so I sat, waiting for someone to come out.

I figured Declan would be the fastest, not only because he's a guy, but also because Reyna took forever in the shower. I took forever as well, but not as long as Reyna. My average showers lasted thirty minutes. Reyna's lasted an hour.

So I placed my self outside of the bathroom that Declan was in, leaning against the wall. I was pulling at my curls, which were filthy from the lake water, as I heard the water turn off in the bathroom, and Declan emerged a moment later.

My face turned crimson as I took him in with nothing on except a towel around his waist, his grinning face showing that he was absolutely loving my discomfort.

"Why are you not wearing clothes?" I said as calmly as possible. He grinned sheepishly.

"I didn't bring them down with me." He answered, his face turning a little pink as well.

"Why would you—" I cut myself off. "You know what? Nevermind," I moved past him through the doorway, brushing against him slightly. I turned to his steadily reddening face and waved awkwardly. "Uh, see you later."

"Oh! Yeah, of course." He finally moved out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. I took a deep breath before getting ready to take my shower.

. . .

At the restaurant, which was just a fast food place, I barely waited for the waitress to take our drink orders before ambushing Reyna with questions.

"What program are you talking about? Why did you tell Declan before me? Why didn't you tell me at all?"

"Oh, Annabahnana, slow down please," Reyna complained, massaging her temples.

"She does have a right to know." I smiled at Declan's input from beside me. Reyna was sitting across from us, and I guessed that Declan chose to sat by me instead because he wanted to interrogate Reyna a little himself.

"Fine!" She snapped, her eyes moving over the two of us and I noticed that she looked a little betrayed that neither of us sat by her. I felt a little bad, but I didn't back down as I gestured for her to go on.

"It's a writing program. Ever since I won at the country's regional level for my fiction piece, they've been offering me to go to London for a school year and take advanced creative writing courses."

Reyna, leaving for an entire school year? I didn't know if I could take that. But I just choked down my despair at the thought of her going, and forced a smile on my face.

"That's great! Do mom and dad know?" I asked.

"Yeah, I told them when I first found out." She replied, looking down at her lap.

"When did you first find out?"

"April."

"You've known for two months and you didn't tell me until now?" I felt more than a little bit betrayed by this fact. I barely even noticed when Declan placed his hand over mine in a show of comfort.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know how to tell you." She tried to meet my gaze but gave up when I wouldn't look at her. The waitress came bustling out with our food, oblivious to the tension at the table.

"Beth?" Declan asked in concern, but I ignored him too.

"Food's here." I said coldly, not saying another word during dinner.

. . .

Later that night, I was laying on the bed in my pajamas, thinking about what Reyna had told me. This was obviously a great opportunity and writing was her dream, but I'd miss her horribly. She was my best friend in the world, the only person who didn't make me feel any less great. I loved Silena, Drew, and Piper, but they were all so beautiful that it made me feel inferior sometimes. Reyna was gorgeous too, but I never felt out of place with her.

I was lost in thought when my door opened. Declan stood there in a t-shirt and boxers and I became all too aware of how much skin my summer pajamas showed. They only consisted of my underwear and an oversized t-shirt. My face heated up.

"Hey Beth," He said kindly sitting on the bed beside me. I sat up, careful not to move where I'd be exposed, and placed my head on his shoulder. Declan and I had hit it off from the very first time that Reyna introduced me, and it felt like he'd always been in my life. I always felt comfortable around him. "I'm sorry she hurt you this way, I told her to tell you a long time ago."

"So you knew right after she found out too?"

"Yeah," He said apologetically. He placed his arm around my shoulders and put his head on top of mine. "I should've told you this sooner, but—"

"Anna—" Reyna paused in the doorway of the room I was staying in and eyed us both warily. I only then realized how couple-ly the two of us must have looked on the bed, and my cheeks felt inflamed.

"Reyna, I—" but Reyna moved out of the doorway quicker than I had ever seen her move before and I followed after her, Declan trailing me at a slower pace.

"I can't believe I didn't guess this sooner," Reyna said sharply, not stopping to even look at me as I struggled to match her stride. "I noticed the way you two looked at each other without either of you realizing it. It's my fault that I didn't break up with him so you guys could be together."

"What are you talking about?" I asked incredulously, before it started to click. "Me and Declan? What do you mean 'I can't believe I didn't guess this sooner,' what was to guess? There's nothing going on!" I grabbed Reyna's wrist, whirling her around to face me. I noticed that Declan didn't make any moves to second my claims, but I hardly cared. I just wanted Reyna to see that I would never make a move on her boyfriend.

"I know that there's nothing going on," Reyna said calmly. "You'd never do that to me, either of you, but that doesn't stop the fact that you two are in love with each other whether you feel like it's right or not."

My heart stopped in my chest and I felt like ice was running through my veins. _In love_ with Declan? Declan's in love with me? I turned towards Declan, but his expression was unreadable, but I knew as I turned to him that I'd grown more fond of him than I realized, more fond than I should have. Maybe I had fallen in love with him, and never realized it. But I'd always felt like I was in love with Luke. But Reyna knew me better than anyone else so—

Then I felt the ice in my veins turn into fire. For some reason, Reyna accusing me of this with a straight face without a doubt in her expression enraged me. _She_ was the one who didn't tell me she was leaving, so she definitely didn't have a right to make a claim _for me_ with an almost smug look on her face.

"How dare you make that decision for me?! How dare you act like you kept me in the dark about that instead of the fact that you've been hiding this writing school from me for two months!"

I didn't wait for a reply as I did the most selfish, irrational, impulsive thing that I've ever done in my life. I grabbed Reyna's fancy pack of important papers off of the counter, stomped out of the cabin, and hurled Reyna's dream into the murky lake, where it drifted along, unable to ever be deciphered again.

I heard Reyna's disbelieving gasp of pain from behind me, and I felt a ringing in my ears, blocking out all other sound. Reyna, sobbing, knees in the dirt as Declan ran behind her and helped her up, talking to her in what was probably a soothing, loving voice. Reyna didn't know what she was talking about. What guy could ever love me when they had her? No guy would ever comfort me the way Declan was her, patting her back affectionately after some ass had caused her pain.

Wait.

 _I. Did. This. To. Her._

The ringing stopped, and I heard Declan's words to her. "Are you sure you can't contact the program and get new papers?"

"N-no, a-all of the c-contact info was in the p-package." Her words came out choked through her tears and I could barely take the look she gave me without crumbling.

And I knew as she glared at me, that our relationship would never be the same.

She locked herself in her room after she called an uber driver to come pick her up, and I sat on the sofa in the living room, staring hollowly at the fireplace in front of me. The weight shifted as Declan sat beside me.

"I'll take you home after she leaves, don't worry." He told me quietly.

"Thanks." I said flatly.

"No problem, Beth."

"Why are you being nice to me? I'm a horrible person."

"Beth no—" He had his hand reached out, but deciding against touching me, he scratched the back of his head instead. "You're not at all a horrible person. You just got angry. Reyna had tested you one too many times."

"But she's the person I love most in this world. How could I do that to her?" Declan got past his not-touching-me block in his mind, and rubbed my back softly.

"It'll be ok, just give her some time."

"Do you—" I started. "Are you—"

"In love with you?" He finished. I nodded, waiting for his refusal. "Well, yeah, I am I guess. I always find it easier to talk to you than Reyna. I always think about what could have happened if I had met you first."

My mouth dropped. "I can't believe this."

"So I take it you don't feel the same way?" He asked, looking down at his lap.

"Quite the opposite actually," I said, surprising myself. But I did. I did love him and I hadn't wanted to admit in front of Reyna that she had hit the nail on the head. And neither of us had realized it.

"Oh." He said, clearly taken aback.

"But—" I started

"We can't." He finished.

"I don't know if I can ever repair what I just did, but I don't need to give her another reason to hate me."

"Well, I understand," Declan said, voice heavy. "If anything ever changes, just know that I'll be waiting."

I didn't want to tell him that I doubted that very much. If we didn't get together then, then he would just find someone else that he loved and would forget about me entirely. I didn't say that though. I didn't say anything.

Instead, I just stared into his large hazel eyes for a moment, fascinated by the different textures of green, before swooping in and closing the gap between us. His lips were soft and warm against mine and my head felt like it was spinning out of control. I felt like this was what I was supposed to be doing forever. And I wanted nothing more than to continue kissing him, but I forced myself to break away after only couple seconds.

"Well, goodbye I guess." I said weakly.

His eyes were wide, and I couldn't believe he was looking at _me_ with so much love on his face. "Goodbye Beth."

 **. . .**

 **Present time**

I lost two people I loved that night. And it was all my fault.

 **. . .**

 **Thanks so much for reading! That was a really emotional chapter for me to write. And I always knew that Annabeth would throw Reyna's writing papers off the deck from the very beginning, but a boy wasn't originally involved. I made this change because what Reyna said was the only reason to really make Annabeth go over the edge and be capable of doing something so horrible.**

 **So how did you like the chapter? Is Declan too random? Do you like him? This chapter was so hard for me to write, I never felt like I was going in a realistic direction, but I'm pretty proud of the final product.**

 **Besides the fact that it was hard for me to write, I took absolutely AGES to update and I do have reasons/excuses (depending on how you look at it):**

 **-Final tests, but school is out now and I'm officially a HIGH-SCHOOLER**

 **-I'm been feeling sick this past week (I'm feeling better though)**

 **-I started this chapter a long time ago, it was just really hard to get it moving**

 **I HAVE EXCITING NEWS!**

 **I AM A HIGH-SCHOOL FOOTBALL TRAINER! I applied before I even started this story, and it only occurred to me the week that we were supposed to find out who made football trainer that it would be really damn depressing to continue this story if I didn't make it.**

 **But I did, so it's all good :)**

 **PLEASE REVIEW! I believe we reached our 5 review goal last time so THANK YOU!**

 **Review goal: 5 still, but maybe I'll bump it up if I get a lot ;)**

 **~Molly xoxoxoxo xo**

 **P. S. I'm sorry I ramble too much**


	6. My Attempt at an Explanation

**Hey, I'm sorry I haven't updated in forever, my life has been pretty hectic. Summer wasn't as relaxing as I'd planned and now I've started high school so it's not getting any better.**

 **I'm in 9th grade now, taking English 2 preAP and geometry preAP this semester while running cross country, being on the yearbook staff, and being a football trainer. Except I don't have the nicest girls doing it with me like Annabeth does :(**

 **I will get back into the hang of things with this story, I promise! It'll just take me awhile to get my schedule down and figure out the best time to write. But when I'm back I'll try my best to make it so good that you'll have forgotten that I even left ;)**

 **My second semester won't be nearly as hectic. I don't have a sport to play and the classes aren't nearly as work heavy.**

 **Anyway, thanks for everyone who follows this story and leaves nice reviews, I'm going to come back for you guys.**

 **~Molly xoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


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